Latest news, weather and high school sports for Albany and Southwest Georgia

ALBANY, GA --
Jerome Walden's family members recall what the 45-year-old father, grandfather, brother and son was like.

"He was a good brother. He was fussy, you had to fuss at him but other than that he was good," said Walden’s sister, Virginia Bullock.

"He was a family oriented person, fun-loving, hard worker. Everyone just clung to him,” said Wanda Rivers, Walden’s niece.

Walden passed away on July 29th, 2011 after being kept on life support for over a month - a result of a brutal beating in an alley of the corner of Poplar and Highland Avenue that the family still struggles to accept.

"No one can understand why it happened. What reason would anybody have to brutally beat someone like that and just leave them there?" said Rivers.

Now a year to the day after the beating Walden's family will held a candlelight vigil in the spot he fought for his life as a way to keep his memory alive.

Friends and family say Walden walked this alleyway every day and if it happened to him, it could happen to anyone. During the vigil, they'll be walking the alleyway themselves in hopes of getting closure.

"We're hoping to get some kind of closure for the family because a lot of us are still having a hard time adjusting to it," said Rivers.

Walden's sister says it's so hard to adjust, it's almost like he's not really gone.

"It just doesn't seem like he's gone. It just seems like he's out of town somewhere working and some of us are still looking for him to come but we know he isn't going to show up."